1. Georgia (the state not the country) has had ten different constitutions. If this was a trial, we could call them an expert *state*. Get it? Anyway, today, we’re exploring the constitutional history of the Peach State. #50Weeks50Constitutions.
2. Our first stop is the baby constitution, better known as the Rules and Regulations of the Colony of Georgia which governed the revolutionary colony from April 1776 to February 1777. It also had nothing to do with bulldogs.
3. It named the people as the sole source of power & declared that the government was for their benefit. It set up a unicameral assembly which appointed the chief executive for a term of 6 months, set up a Privy Council to advise him, & established a small court system.
4. Georgia finally adopted its own constitution in 1777, which reiterated independence from Great Britain & enshrined in the preamble the idea that taxation (& general binding laws) without representation were “repugnant to the common right of mankind.”
5. Like other early constitutions, the legislature was the most powerful branch. But Georgia was in the minority creating a unicameral legislature & not adopting a bill of rights. Though some rights, including free exercise and freedom of press, were enumerated.
6. In 1789 Georgia drafted a new constitution based off the recently ratified federal one. This constitution created a bicameral legislature which chose the executive and judges. Much like the original federal constitution, there was no bill of rights.
7. In 1798 Georgia adopted a new constitution to fight corruption & cure the defects of the original. It was twice as long & contained more detailed provisions regarding the power of the legislature to avoid a repeat of the Yazoo Land Fraud.
8. What was the Yazoo Land Fraud you ask? Well… a few companies/partnerships convinced the Georgia legislature to sell them the land (belonging to the Yazoo tribe) for a small sum. The kicker? Some legislators then got an interest in the land from the companies! So not good.
9. Along with setting out restrictions a little more explicitly, the 1798 constitution allowed for the popular election of the governor, but still did not add a bill of rights. More radically though, it didn’t provide for a supreme court.
10. In fact, there was no provision for a supreme court until an 1835 constitutional amendment. Even then, it took a few years for the court to be set up. Georgia acted without a formal system of appellate review in the state for decades.
11. This constitution was replaced in 1861 for the obvious reason: secession. The 1861 constitution was modeled off the ill begotten Confederate Constitution, but no surprise there. What is surprising is that this one was the first to append a bill of rights!
12. This “Declaration of Fundamental Principles” had many of the same rights you know & love that are found in the federal Bill of Rights. But Georgia has a couple of unique ones. Notably, it explicitly enumerates the right of the judiciary to declare laws unconstitutional. 
13. Importantly, this constitution had a unique “Baby Ninth Amendment.” The formulation is not found in any other state. Yet there is no record of any debate about the language at the drafting convention. The language is generally the same in the current Georgia constitution.
14. This constitution did not last for obvious reasons. But much of the language, especially in the "Declaration of Fundamental Principles" survived. Georgia adopted a new constitution in 1865, but Congress rejected it because Georgia refused to ratify the 14th Amendment.
15. Georgia drafted a new constitution in 1868 with the standard trappings of a reconstruction constitution. Slavery was abolished and African American men were given the vote. More importantly, they ratified the 14th Amendment so Congress accepted the constitution.
16. A new constitution was submitted to the voters in 1877. Georgia readopted the Baby Ninth Amendment which had been dropped by the 1868 constitution. Limits were placed on senators and governors to fight corruption and lobbying was declared a crime.
17. The constitution lasted until 1945, though it was amended hundreds of times. The 1945 constitution was drafted by a commission appointed by the governor. It was largely the same, but it added many of the previous amendments to the body of the document.
18. Another “new” constitution was adopted in 1976. It was drafted by the office of legislative council and reorganized the entire document to make more sense. It was passed overwhelmingly and set the stage for substantive amendments by the constitution of 1983.
19. The 1983 constitution, one of the newest in the country, was half the length of the former, and used simpler, plain English, terminology to make it easier to understand and more accessible. It also substantially reformed the judicial branch.
20. Georgia has a long and rich constitutional history. Knowing this, Georgia requires all students who receive a degree from public university to pass an exam showing proficiency with the Georgia Constitution. Maybe this thread will help! #50Weeks50Constitutions.
